Macquarie Private Wealth has hired 19 advisers across six states, including four from acquisitive Perth-based adviser Plan B.
The announcement comes amid talk of redundancies across the stockbroking industry as prolonged market volatility and Australia’s relatively high interest rates drive investors from shares to cash.
Macquarie Private Wealth, which includes the group’s broking division, said it had hired Michael Harwood, Michael Moursellas, Ryan Wareing and Andrew White in Perth. All four have joined from Plan B.
Plan B recently expanded to the east coast by buying one-third of independent dealer My Adviser, with plans to buy the remainder over two years.
In Queensland, Scott MacKenzie, Emmet Ryan, Matthew Cahill, Joshua Derrington, Ben Kirkegaard and Lawrence Williamson have joined the company in Brisbane.
Macquarie said MacKenzie and Ryan specialised in Australian equities, Cahill and Derrington in asset allocation, Kirkegaard in high net-worth clients and Williamson in self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF).
It hired five private client advisers in Canberra. Paschal Leahy and Luke Furner specialise in defined-benefit superannuation, Bob Backer focuses on advising clients in the defence and public sectors about retirement planning and super, and Hena Power and Penny Ponder specialise in portfolio management and SMSFs.
In South Australia, Macquarie Private Wealth has hired David Duncan to provide advice for business owners and self-funded retirees, and risk specialist James Inglis.
On the direct equity side, it hired Paris Magdalinos from Lonsec in Melbourne and Patrick Hunt from Lonsec in Sydney.
Meanwhile, the broking industry was beset by talk of hundreds of redundancies, including at Macquarie, Bell Potter and JPMorgan.
“Certainly, there are no redundancies across our organisation,” a Bell Potter human resources executive told InvestorDaily.
“We’ve always had a stable team.”
